My Life in Bali, Multiple Sclerosis, Writing, Family, Travels, and Other Amusements

Visits

Thursday, December 6, 2018

The Fall

Christoph, my fellow MSer here in Bali, had a bad fall in the shower the other day, and by this morning found himself unable to get out of bed. The pain medicine he had been given, which was after all just paracetamol, proved ineffective for his pain. Pain can be a problem here in Bali, as the strongest med they have, as far as I've found, is codeine, which is often not very effective either (not to mention that it constipates the user something terrible). Christoph, however, whom I talked to this morning, was able to find some help through his Balinese friend and that friend's network in the form of a temporary assistant and (I think) a visiting doctor. The will be to be caring and helpful, which seems common among the Balinese, never ceases to amaze me. It is, I think, a cultural thing learned early on, and there is a desire, especially where the tamu are concerned (the 'guests', like me and Christoph) to be helpful, to provide assistance to strangers in a strange land. In some sense, there is no better place in which to suffer the disabilities of MS, particularly in the sense that kindness is often the only effective treatment for the disease.